Minister scolds Jal Jeevan engineers over water budgeting in Mysuru review meeting

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Eshwar B. Khandre scolded Jal Jeevan Mission engineers for not knowing about water budgeting when they could not explain the idea during a review meeting at the Mysuru Zilla Panchayat office on Wednesday.

Water Budgeting Explained

When the Minister asked what water budgeting meant, the officials stayed silent and fumbling, which made Mr. Khandre angry about how they could do their jobs without knowing such a basic rule. He then explained the idea himself, saying it meant doing a proper scientific check of available water and future needs before planning drinking water projects.

Project Funds And Directives

He noted that the State government is spending ₹67,000 crore on single-village and multi-village drinking water schemes, asking what the point of such big spending is if water does not reach homes. He told Deputy Secretaries to visit villages personally and check if the Jal Jeevan Mission is supplying water to every single village and the last household.

Mandya District Works

While travelling by car from Mandya to Mysuru on Wednesday, the Minister held a work meeting with Mandya Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K.R. Nandini. He told officials to pick 50 busy villages to build bus shelters under the VB-G RAM G scheme and to open more Akka Cafes to help women's self-help groups earn a living. He also spoke about illegal e-Swathus in Indavalu Gram Panchayat, ordering the cancellation of any papers found to be made with forged documents. Talking about lake land grabs, he stated that out of 417 lakes in Mandya gram panchayat limits, 155 had encroachments over 319 acres, with 162 acres cleared so far and 158 acres still left to clear.

Context

Water budgeting is an important planning step used by governments to match local water supply with future population needs. Field review meetings help senior ministers check ground-level progress on big public welfare schemes.